The invention concerns a support element for a finger lever of a valve drive of an internal combustion engine comprising a hollow cylindrical housing arranged in a reception bore of a cylinder head, a slidable inner element arranged within the housing being supported by a compression spring on the housing, while one end of the housing cooperates with the cylinder head, and one end of the inner element cooperates with the finger lever.
A support element of the pre-cited type is known from EP 03 32 359 B1. The housing of the support element is retained in the bore of the cylinder by a ring. A drawback of this construction is that an additional groove has to be made in the housing and mounting is rendered more difficult because of the additional locking ring required. Besides this, this method of fixing does not secure the housing against rotation in the reception bore.
It is also known in this connection to retain the housing of the support element in the reception bore by groove and spring retention means.
However, a drawback of such methods is the difficulty of manufacturing and the problematic assembly. It is further known to fix the housing on the outer diameter with the help of a screw thread. In this case, besides the expensive manufacturing, there exists the danger of a binding of the slidable inner element if the tightening torque of the hollow cylindrical housing is too high. Finally, it is also possible to fix the housing in the reception bore of the cylinder head by a press fit. This, however, requires very precise matching of sizes and there is the danger of clamping of the inner element in the housing. In addition, this type of fixing does not permit dismounting.